SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems and architectures provide process supervisory control and data collection capabilities used to operate most industrial systems today. Most industrial processes and machines are also controlled by SCADA systems using industrial controllers such as PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers).
Traditional SCADA systems enable operators to effectively monitor field devices from a remote location whereas field operators rely on legacy hand held devices (e.g., smartphones, tablet computers, etc.) to monitor and configure these devices, which are difficult to operate. A field operator has to remember the asset tags of various field devices and get contextual information based on a tag/ID. This becomes more challenging if the devices are mounted in locations that are not easily reachable or accessible. Current approaches to identify devices based on GPS, Geo-tags, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacons, NFC (Near Field Communication) tags, and QR (Quick Response) codes have limitations with respect to accuracy and accessibility.
Conventional approaches to monitoring and configuring field devices in an industrial plant suffer from a number of problems. The first problem involves the time and personnel needed to connect to field devices using, for example, legacy hand held devices. Second, it is very difficult to fetch ID/tag information due to difficulty reaching field devices (e.g., field devices maintained in a high location). Third, may field devices possess power limitations that prevent or limit the ability to implement BLE and Wi-Fi beacon based communication approaches. Fourth, it is difficult to connect with field devices in particular vicinities in an industrial plant without tag information. It is believed that eliminating these problems will lead to greater efficiencies and improvements in identifying and connecting to such field devices.